My condolences on joining the scum of the earth, MDB! That's right—you are now a sysop!

You have been sysoped for being at least one of the following: (1) you are a carbon-based life form; (2) you're breathing (at least, I hope so); (3) you're not a vandal (4) you're littering red exclamation points everywhere! (My sincerest hope is that you are a carbon-based life form : ) )

You keep forgetting them. If you post on discussion page/talk/debate please put 4 tildas. If you are new to wikis you can develop the good habit of clicking the button at the bottom just before you go to save.- User 07:10, 18 March 2009 (EDT)

Yeah, I know. Sorry. I am a Bear of Very Little Brain sometimes. MDB 07:16, 18 March 2009 (EDT)

What was the final total for you? We ended up at 21 inches. I've been picking at the driveway little by little, but I have most of it done, and at least I found my car. Aboriginal NoiseWhat the hell is that thing? 23:41, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I've donated £50 to wikileaks. Because I 100% support what they're doing. Roll that in a page of your bible and smoke the motherfucker. Then get a grip. Wikileaks have leaked nothing, and if you don't want to know about shit, then don't read it. But please don't insult your own intelligence. DeltaStarSenior SysopSpeciationspeed! 01:50, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

I think we should likely block this user for an even longer time, on the order of "indefinite" as the name is a threat against a living US president. We oversight libel and slander on the wiki, don't we have some sort of legal obligation to block users with patently offensive/illegal/seditious names? What do you think? --EiraOMTG!The Goatbe Praised. 17:58, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I say err on the side of caution, block the user, and see who wants to argue that we should not and what that argument might be. Tmtoulouse (talk) 18:24, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I figured so as well, but I wanted to get input from some others before doing something that the block form doesn't seem to allow one to do form-letter-style. --EiraOMTG!The Goatbe Praised. 18:27, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Death threats are not included in free speech (harm principle). ThunderkatzHo! 18:34, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I wouldn't know how -- could someone else take care of that? (I'd suggest "Candidate for a Secret Service Database Entry".) MDB (talk) 18:57, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

We have plenty of president (sic ;D) for renaming users to something that mocks their original and inappropriate name. This is the sort of thing that the Secret Service would have no sense of humour over and it is inappropriate so I'd change it - any blocking should be based on activity, not username, though. theist 19:15, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Good point -- the Secret Service officially takes the view point that "there's no such thing as a joke about assassinating the President." MDB (talk) 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I had no idea how to rename a user, so I did the best thing that I was able to cobble together. --EiraOMTG!The Goatbe Praised. 19:51, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I, too, was raised a Methodist (though baptized Episcopalian), and I also believe there is something out there we can't explain. I have been struggling through the years to "pick a side" between science and faith, and as someone trained in science, it should be easy, but faith is an awfully powerful thing. Plus, we both deal with snow a lot. Aboriginal NoiseWhat the hell is that thing? 00:43, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

That's a typo. It should have been "in New Zealand". Trust me, I'm quote sober. MDB (talk) 14:09, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Fair enough, nowt wrong with a bit of grog though (although I've given it up for lent). I'm also pleased to learn that the term is understood on t'other side of the Atlantic. DeltaStarSenior SysopSpeciationspeed! 14:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I grokked what you meant by grog. MDB (talk) 14:41, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Embarrassingly I had to google what you meant by grokked. I like that term, I shall use it myself, often. (my missus still comes out with teuchter words that I haven't heard before, but can generally grok) So thank you, were it not for your typo, I wouldn't have discovered this. DeltaStarSenior SysopSpeciationspeed! 15:31, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

...however as we both know the habit is not sustainable. Oh how I wish I could smoke with impunity but the reality is bad breath, foul odor, bad teeth, sticky lungs, no money, cancer, death. Even though we know these things we continue to want to smoke.
But we must not and quitting is hard so let me tell you how I managed it.
I had smoked heavily for 16 years without once trying to give up. Smoking was me. It was all part of Ace's image to the world. Heavy drinker and unforgiving smoker. So each time I flirted with the idea of not smoking I would feel like I wouldn't be me anymore. I tried patches once but kept smoking, albeit a little less.
It's a mind game you see. And when I realised it was in my mind as opposed to a physical addiction I went to a hypnotist. When he sat me down and asked why I wanted to quit I trotted out the usual "money, family, history of cancer in the family, bullshit, bullshit" because I actually didn't want to quit. I only went to him due to peer pressure (ironically) from my now wife and my own vague notions of "I really should quit".
So we did this really weird bizarre hypnotising thing and he sent me on my way - telling me to always say to myself that I am an ex-smoker instead of non-smoker because it puts smoking in the past tense as opposed to the present. Makes sense really.
After a couple of weeks though I cracked. I had been stressing out majorly due to my upcoming wedding, I was surrounded by family from overseas who all smoked, I was having major panic attacks and it was just a really stupid time to quit smoking.
So a couple days after my wedding I went back to the hypnotist (I had another 3 sessions if I needed them) and we went through it again although shorter than last time because the programming was already there.
But here is the difference - this time I had a reason to quit.
It was nothing to do with money, cancer or any other reason. I was because it beat me last time.
After I had been to him the first time I got grumpy, had difficulty sleeping which culminated in some serious panic attacks which lead me to smoking again. I was furious with myself, why did I have to smoke in order to remain calm?
Why do I have to reach for a packet of cigarettes in order to sleep and act normal? I am in charge, not the fucking smokes.
That is when it clicked and the mind game made sense to me, that is when my mind (albeit with help from the hypnotist) got round the tricks nicotine had pulled on it. I figured out who is in charge here - fucking Ace that's who.
That was almost two months ago and since then I have had large parties and BBQ's where I have smoked but I don't see myself as a smoker and when I leave the party: smoking doesn't come with me. There are no cigarettes in my house, none at work and I don't even carry a lighter. Sure I may have cravings now and then but they are really small beer now. Once you work out the mind aspect, the rest comes naturally.
I hope this helps, I just want to share this with you because for me it was like a religious experience. Suddenly clicking like that made it seem so easy. Good luck to you sir! Aceof Spades 20:56, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, that sounds like good advice.

One of the things I've been telling myself is "if you can lose 285 pounds and keep it off, you can give up a less than a pack a day habit." Different form of convincing yourself. MDB (talk) 11:07, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

If I was actually in the UK, and actually the type to bet on horse races, I just might do that. MDB (talk) 17:26, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

OK. You let me know when you move to the UK and become a racing punter, and I'll then let you know when Welease Bwian is running again. DeltaStarSenior SysopSpeciationspeed! 17:48, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

All Christians ignore the parts of the Bible they don't like. Some of us are just honest about it.[edit]

That's the only tenable moral philosophy, Christian or not, IMO, unlike Harris-types who've claimed to invent a "science" of morality without realizing that a good deal of Western secular ethical philosophy is just liberal Christianity with the god bits crossed out, Jefferson Bible-style. But, then again, I am a pretty hardcore moral skeptic.Nebuchadnezzar (talk) 00:39, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

the AFA got seriously bitch slapped 7 or 8 years back about the clergy doing their best to bring back the 1950s. So they have really stepped up the inclusion rhetoric. the AFA is no more or less christian than any other military base. but, military being what it is, atheists are often on the outside looking in. But that's nothing to do with the AFA. if your niece can get in, the AFA has several programs for kids interested in computers, science, or space. The funny thing is that while there are these very famous, popular fundi orgs there, and lots of fundi money, the PEOPLE in CS are really not conservative. They are like the rest of Colorado - pretty open about most things. CS not only has teh academy, but like 3 or 4 bases nearby, so it is largely populated by military folk, but as i said, that's changing with the influx of tech down there. my brother was agnostic when he went into the military at 18, and 30 years later is quite conservative. But that's not the AFA's doing, it's "the military". your bro has survived that all these years, AFA will be no different!--GodotGrow a vagina 18:48, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

That's good to know. The articles I was reading were from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which are, well, hardly an unbiased source.

My brother-in-law joined the Air Force when he was in his early thirties, so his politics were already better molded. MDB (talk) 19:05, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

:-DTheory of PracticeYears of being an atheist: 30. Instances of persecution on that account: 0. 16:02, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

I grew up watching The Electric Company. I even remember a joke that I didn't get till years later. It featured Peter Graves and Greg Morris discussing a case they worked with Fargo North, Decoder. "Oh, the mission went fine. But he was impossible." (For that matter, I didn't get the "Fargo North, Decoder" joke.) MDB (the MD is for Maryland, the B is for Bear) (talk) 16:14, 17 July 2012 (UTC)